Rust, Who Flew Cessna to Moscow, Marries in Reno

HAMBURG, Germany — Daredevil pilot Mathias Rust, convicted in April of stabbing a nurse who spurned his advances, was married recently in Nevada to a Polish woman, it was disclosed Thursday.

Rust, 23, was married May 23 at the Heart of Reno chapel to Katarzyna Burdzy, 27, chapel Manager Roberta Monroe said in Reno.

“We probably had about 20 people from Germany, the news, filming it. It was like a documentary almost,” Monroe said.

The Bild newspaper did not provide any background on Burdzy or say where the couple met.

Rust became a German folk hero in 1987 when he flew a Cessna through the Soviet Union’s air defenses, landing in Moscow’s Red Square near the Kremlin. He spent more than a year in a Soviet prison for the feat.

Rust was convicted April 19 of attempted manslaughter for stabbing a young nurse at a Hamburg hospital where they both worked.

He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison but was allowed to remain free while appealing the sentence.

Bild said that in a film of the couple’s 10-day honeymoon made by the private German television network “Premiere,” Rust is seen gruffly ordering his wife to fetch his shoes. Later he berates her for eating a salad.